What is the best brand of mince pies in Ireland?

For many people, a mince pie at Christmas time is as essential as roast turkey for lunch on Christmas day.

To make sure you buy a quality brand, Simon Tierney bought three boxes of mince pies and put them to the taste test alongside Kieran Cuddihy for this week's Shopping Trolley Hotline. 

The first up was Mr Kipling’s box of six which retails at €3.50.  

“For me, the pastry is very thick in this, it’s almost half a centimetre, it’s quite a heavy rich [mince pie],” Simon told listeners of The Hard Shoulder.  

“You couldn’t really have more than one of these, it’s a heavy pie.” 

Kieran described it as a mince pie that “crunches” because there is so much sugar. 

Dunnes’ All Butter Puff Pastry Mince Pies retails at €3.49 and Simon admitted to being a fan. 

“I loved the Dunnes product,” he said. 

“For me, that’s the number one product. It’s nostalgic but it’s also lighter.” 

Alcohol filled pies

Finally, there was Lidl’s All Butter mince pies for €2.99. 

It was the only with alcohol, which Simon predicted would make mince pie “purists” happy.

He said he could tell “instantly” it had booze in it because it “cut the tongue off me”. 

“For me, it smells and tastes like paintstripper,” he said. 

“It doesn’t taste like a quality brandy. It is 4% brandy but it cuts through you. 

“It’s too much.”

Although Kieran said all the mince pies were “delicious”, he thought it was the Lidl product that stood out. 

“I liked the little bit of alcohol off it,” he said. 

“It’s less obviously sugary as well than the other two, it’s not quite as sweet. I’m going to go with that.” 

You can listen back here:

Main image: Kieran Cuddihy. Image: Newstalk.